Message from the Executive Director
Welcome to GLISI’s new and improved quarterly newsletter.
My pledge to you is that this newsletter will be brief and useful.
Each issue will feature district leaders like you who are improving teaming and learning. For this first issue, we turn to
Mitchell County in Southwest Georgia. We will also highlight

How to Prioritize When Everything
is High Priority
After the excitement of Base Camp and Leadership
Summit fades, how do districts that improve student
achievement maintain their focus? Three letters: I-I-C.
The Improvement Implementation Coordinator is integral

resources, tools, and upcoming events that can help you be

to driving and sustaining change on the ground. This

a better leader.

feature will shine a light on the important role of the IIC

As always, I welcome your feedback and questions about

in districts with promising student achievement results.

GLISI or education leadership. I look forward to working with

Christy Wray is a former high school math teacher and

you to build great school and district leaders for Georgia.

academic math coach. Currently, she serves as the
Mitchell County’ School System’s Curriculum Director
and has been a GLISI IIC for the last five years. Here,
she offers a glimpse into her life as an IIC.

Gale D. Hulme, Ed.D.
Executive Director

(Continued on page 2)

www.glisi.org

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our schools are facing. But at every meeting, we devote time
to look at two things: 1) how we are doing on our balanced
scorecard and 2) our progress on our priority areas.
Q: What advice would you give someone who is stepping
into the role of an IIC?
A: I think one of the most important jobs an IIC has is helping
each team member understand the purpose of attending
Base Camp and Leadership Summit - particularly why they
were selected and what they are supposed to be gaining from
the experience. For every cohort, I put together notebooks for
every single team member. I mean, these notebooks are
complete with divider tabs so that every team member has
the same information. The notebook includes our system improvement plan, our balanced scorecard, and our strategic
plan. Since some teachers may not have ever seen some of
these documents, I make sure to go over each of these documents with every team member. This helps us to link back all
the work done at Base Camp to our district strategic goals. I
have found that taking the time to get organized and prepared
for Base Camp and Leadership Summit not only improves our
teams’ experience during the three days at the mountain, but
it helps them to continue the work when they return to Mitchell
County. To read the full interview, click here.

The Mitchell County team is pictured here working together on data
analysis as part of Cohort 37 in Fall 2012

Q: How often do you meet with the teams that have attended Base Camp and Leadership Summit?
A: It depends on the team, and it depends on the issue we
identified as our focus. We ask ourselves: Is this something
we need to act on immediately? Is it something we need to
find a program to implement or find some resources to help
our teachers? So we meet monthly, but it just depends on
the team and the need. We also created a cohort team that
meets annually in the spring and includes all the teachers
and leaders that have ever attended Base Camp and Leadership Summit, everyone that’s ever been “GLISIfied.” It can
be hard to squeeze these meetings in, but the one meeting I
know we will have is the monthly principal director’s meetings. We always have these before school from 7:30 to 9:30
a.m. and our principals, sometimes assistant principals, our
superintendent, and of course I attend. We come together
once a month and we talk about any particular challenges

Christy Wray is Mitchell County’s curriculum
director. She also serves as the system’s test
coordinator, professional learning director, grant
writer, pre-K project director, and about half a
dozen more positions whose hats she wears
more or less equally.

HS Feedback Reports

Coming Soon!

In conjunction with our celebration of successes among
the ten pilot districts participating in the Data Utilization
Project, GLISI invites you to join us in being among the
first to see the newly developed Georgia High School
Feedback Reports. The event will take place on March
18, 2013 from 10:00am - 2:00pm at the Evergreen Conference Center located in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Attendance is by invitation only; however, limited additional seats may be available for a nominal fee. Learn
more here.

Tools for Leading
In January, GLISI launched a research brief series, designed to help school and districts leaders learn about
trending innovations in education. The first brief focused
on collective impact, a strategy that shows promise in
helping organizations join forces to bring about longlasting positive changes in education. To read the full
brief, click here.

Registration for 2013-2014 Base Camp & Leadership Summit will
be open in March. To be placed on a priority list for registration
next year, contact Nanci Foster at nanci.foster@glisi.org.
Save the dates now!



Cohort 40 (Secondary) September 9-11 and October 7-9



Cohort 41 (Teacher Leader) October 28-30 and December 9-11



Cohort 42 (District) January 13-15 & February 24-26, 2014

GLISI is an independent non-profit organization providing training and consulting to school and district leaders throughout
Georgia.
Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement
1755 North Brown Road, Suite 200
Lawrenceville, GA 30043
770-464-9299